1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air vent. In one of its aspects, the invention relates to an air vent having adjustable vanes for controlling the direction of the air for directional deflection and for diffused flow.
2. Description of Related Art
In heating and cooling systems for automobiles, it is desirable to control the direction of the air emitted through the ducts so the vehicle operator can control the spacial heating or cooling of the vehicle. In a typical vehicle installation, multiple air vents are disposed across the vehicle dash at discrete locations. The air vents are preferably positioned so the air emitted by the heating and cooling system can be directed to either the front or rear seat areas of the vehicle.
It is common in contemporary vehicles for the air vents to control the lateral (side-to-side) air flow and the angular (floor-to-ceiling) air flow within the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The air vent generally comprises a housing having an opening in which are pivotally mounted multiple vanes that pivot about parallel and vertical or horizontal axes. The vanes are usually linked together for dependent movement, whereby the lateral air flow direction is controlled by pivoting the vanes about the vertical or horizontal axis.
The angular orientation of the air flow is generally controlled by one of two methods. The first method is to pivotally mount the air vent housing within the duct work. The housing is pivotally mounted about an axis of rotation that is substantially horizontal or vertical with respect to the housing outlet opening. Thus, as the housing is rotated about the axis, the angular orientation of the air flow can be directed anywhere from the ceiling to the floor, left or right, of the vehicle passenger compartment. The second method is to fixedly mount the air vent housing within the duct and pivotally mount a second set of dependently linked vanes within the housing. Each vane of the second set of vanes is pivotally mounted within the housing to rotate about parallel and generally horizontal or vertical axes, normal to the generally vertical or horizontal axes, whereby the angular orientation of the air flow being emitted from the air vent can be directed to any position from the ceiling to the floor, left or right.
Air vents that control only the lateral and angular orientation of the air flow are in some cases not completely satisfactory in that they do not provide any means for diffusing the air emitted from the vent. Often times, it is desireable to diffuse the emitted air to cover a wider area with a lower flow rate air stream rather than controlling only the lateral and angular position of a focused air stream. U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,753, issued Aug. 6, 1991, discloses an air vent for directing or diffusing the air emitted from the air vent. The air vent comprises three sets of laterally aligned and vertically oriented air vanes. The three sets of linearly aligned air vanes are linked for dependent lateral movement by a knob on one of the vanes. To diffuse the air emitted from the air vent, the outermost sets of air vanes are coupled by a singular wire to the knob by a rod, whereby rotation of the knob translates the rotary motion of the rod to linear motion of the wire to move the wire into an overcenter position, thereby deflecting air passing through the outermost sets of air vanes toward the central vanes to diffuse the air passing through the vanes.